Month: April 2015

Homeless advocacy group Homes For Every New Yorker (HFENY) released a report yesterday urging Mayor de Blasio to set aside 2,500 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) apartments for homeless families. The city currently sets aside a minimum of 750 NYCHA apartments to the homeless each fiscal year—far fewer than have been designated under previous mayoral administrations.

Politicians and activists kept up pressure on the de Blasio administration to increase its allocations of New York City Housing Authority apartments for the homeless in the face of a spiraling indigent crisis—and brandished a sheet of statistics showing that previous mayors had granted shelter families greater access to public housing despite dealing with smaller populations.

Gov. Cuomo’s administration on Tuesday gave the city a week to clean up homeless shelters perenially plagued by code violations, including a Queens hotel that’s hosting a vermin colony.

In a letter obtained by the Daily News, Sharon Devine, acting commissioner of the state Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance, warned the city homeless services department it could be facing big fines.